Canelo-Crawford: Vegas Fight Confirmed

Canelo Alvarez has confirmed that his fight against Terence Crawford will be in Las Vegas on September 13th. He says they’re still “working on” the fight being staged at the Allegiant Stadium.

Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) states that Las Vegas is the ideal location for his clash against Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) because it’s perfect for Mexican Independence Day. Southern California or Texas were rumored to be the two other options for staging the Canelo-Crawford fight, but it looks like Vegas is where it’s happening.

The 40-ish Crawford will essentially be moving up from welterweight, three divisions, to challenge Canelo, 35, for his undisputed super middleweight championship. One of the marketing angles for the fight is that it allows Crawford to become a three-division undisputed champion.

It’s doubtful that anyone will care about that other than the ultra-hardcore stat freak fans who focus on records. Regular fans just want to see a good fight between high-quality, well-known fighters. It would have helped a lot if Crawford had gone up to 168 and taken on David Benavidez to earn the Canelo fight instead of having it given to him on a silver platter by Turki Alalshikh.

Allegiant Stadium: Venue Update

“We’re still working on that, but we’re going to make sure everything is the best,” said Canelo Alvarez to the media when asked if the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas is still under consideration for his fight against Terence Crawford on September 13th.

Staging Canelo vs. Crawford makes sense for Las Vegas because it takes advantage of the Mexican superstar’s fan base from California, Nevada, and Texas. Staging the fight at Allegiant Stadium would be ideal to have a large crowd to seat the fans who are intrigued by this novelty-level fight.

“It’s a fight that the people should enjoy in Las Vegas.” When asked where the fight will be staged, Canelo said, “Vegas. Yes, of course. There’s no better weekend in Vegas than Mexican Independence Day.”

Placing the fight in Riyadh would hurt interest due to the time, and it might be tough for the aging Canelo. He looked hellish in his last fight, struggling to defeat William Scull on May 3rd in Saudi Arabia. Alvarez, 35, looked every bit of his age and then some. I don’t know that we can blame Canelo’s poor performance on him fighting in a different time zone in Riyadh, because it looked more like him showing signs of being over the hill.

If you take the 27-year-old version of Canelo that first fought Gennadiy Golovkin in 2017 against Scull last May, he’d have likely destroyed the Cuban. Unfortunately for Alvarez, he doesn’t fight like that anymore, and he was fortunate that Scull didn’t show more aggression because he probably would have lost.

Canelo Explains Riyadh Form

“It was obviously a new experience. Everything was very different for me fighting in the morning than at night. It’s tough. Your body feels off. You feel disoriented, but it’s a part of the experience,” said Canelo, explaining why he didn’t perform well, fighting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, against William Scull in a different time zone than in North America.

Notice the excuses from Canelo? He doesn’t want to admit that he’s gotten old and can’t even deal with timid, flawed fighters like Scull. Let’s be clear about this: Canelo didn’t struggle against Scull due to the time zone. He had problems because he’s no longer a spring chicken—the same with the soon-to-be 38-year-old Crawford. Both are relics from a bygone era

He looked abysmal in his last fight against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd, and seemed mentally oblivious afterward, saying he was “beating him up all through the fight.” Crawford even dismissed ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov’s power, telling the media it was “nothing I’ve never seen before”.

It was hard to see Crawford serious with his face badly bruised, and more marked up than any fight in his 17-fight card. He looked like a tractor-trailer had run over him, and yet he was downplaying Madrimov’s power after the fight. However, Turki Alalshikh still wanted to use Crawford for the Canelo fight rather than young talents like David Benavidez. I’d have never given Crawford another thought after the Madrimov fight if it had been me.

“I’m glad I achieved one of my dreams to fight outside of the U.S or Mexico. Very good. I’m really happy working with him,” said Canelo about his thoughts on working with Turki Alalshikh.

I can imagine Canelo’s happiness working with Turki. He’s rumored to get $150 million for the fantasy-level circus fight against Crawford. I’d be happy, too, fighting a 40-ish welterweight instead of having to earn the dough fighting David Benavidez.